Dee: Inspiring and Intriguing.

Hi all,

It has been a chilling week here in Taipei. Rainy, and the temperature is getting steady below 30 degree Celsius. It makes me lazy to wake up and get out to lab (haha~). Drizzling and cloudy day is the best moment for reading (books and novels of course, not papers *tongue).

Talking about books, one of my favorite authors is Dee, a pen name of Dewi Lestari. She was firstly known as the members of singing group Rida, Sita, Dewi (RSD). In 2001, she published her first novel: Supernova (episode one); and the book immediately became hits. At that time, I was a freshman in my senior high (boarding school), and well, with not much access to ‘outside world’, my leverage was when I had a chance to visit bookstore.

[picture credit to: Jakarta Post]

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One time, I went to Toga Mas discount bookstore in Yogyakarta, and my eyes caught by one book, Supernova. I didn’t recognize the name “Dee”, and I thought, new author? There was no explanation about the author in the back of the book, and the synopsis didn’t help too much. Then I decided to buy the book.

Oh well, my mind was twisting the first time I read the book. After just a few pages, I said to myself, what the hell is this book? It is full of idioms and terms I didn’t understand (hellooo, I lived far away from Uncle Google). And the story is broken into pieces then arranged irregularly. One chapter tells you the ‘confusing’ things, and then the ‘normal’ chapter follows. I personally felt relieved when it came to those normal chapters (haha).

The first book of Dee is Supernova: Ksatria, Puteri, dan Bintang Jatuh (in English: Supernova: Knight, Princess, and the Fallen Star), in which she tells the readers about two gays planning to write a masterpiece. I won’t tell you the story, as always. Even from the very first chapter Dee already used such complicated words. I also encountered ‘chaos theory’ in the novel, which had been my interest (I wrote a lousy academic article about that for my high school graduation). And that was the key part that kept me from putting the book down * tongue.

It was a very unusual style (colloquially, or should I say highly unlikely?) at that moment, a fusion between fiction and non-fiction story. In one way Dee emphasized a daunting forbidden love story, and in the other hand she used science metaphor and term to explain the plot. And I though that was genius. Brilliant. It is the way she saw a thing not just from one point of view, not just heartily satisfying, but also brainy amusing. Not everyday you’ll read how your happiness and passion in love explain in such plain and not-very-complicated way (for a non scientist like me, it is confusing but still, I can finally get the point). So charming!

Supernova is meant to be a series of different books. Not everyone get that in mind in the time of Supernova: Ksatria, Puteri, dan Bintang Jatuh made its debut in Indonesia. One year after, the second book was released, entitled Supernova: Akar. Dee did not give continuity straight away, because in the second book, she brought a very brief chapter about the characters in the first book, and the rest of it, new people came in. She introduced a unique man, with great power invisible by others. The cover of the original edition, is the symbol of Om, regarded as the sacred symbol of Hinduism. After several protest of the use of the symbol, the following edition of Supernova: Akar no longer bears the Om symbol (I have the first printed edition though). Eventhough Dee seems to hide the missing piece to make the story easily understandable, the plot is still flowing. She just did not (or haven’t) provide(d) details for her story.

The third book is Supernova: Petir, where Dee almost completely broke the relationship between the first, second and the third book. New story, new characters, new style (there’s no confusing science terms in her third book, no footnote whatsoever *haha). There’s a small detail related to the previous two books, just a little, at the very end of the book. Making the readers intrigued, curious (how the hell she can do that so well?).

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The following episode hasn’t been published yet, and Dee compiled her works in Filosofi Kopi, and then wrote another book, Perahu Kertas. I have to admit, Filosofi Kopi reminds me much of her three episodes of Supernova, the language and plot both refers to literature (by literature I mean literary fiction). Perahu Kertas is different, however.  It is a popular fiction, ‘lighter’ than her previous books, telling about love and its irrational world, about the hardship in being honest or keeping someone else’s expectation. Superb. Never read a love story being pictured like that. Simple, but meaningful.

Dewi also creates Rectoverso, a symbiosis of writings and music; 11 short stories combined with songs. Very good idea. She tries to elaborate both of her love into one masterpiece, and Dewi, I adore you for doing so.

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And in the end, I am intrigued if there’s any thing on her stories really happened in her real life. Because I am so inspired and drowned in her books! Sometimes it even seems like I am reading my own life story.

Keep writing Dewi, love your works,

Difference: What Say You?

There are no two same people. Not even twins. However they may look similar to each other, each people is different to the others. And that is the main idea of this post.

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Difference.

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I am an open-minded person. Firstly because of my parents. They both respect differences as something natural and have to be acknowledged. Secondly, I’ve been living in a plural circumstances since I was kid, up till now. Though I was born in (literally) Javanese family, my big family differs in many aspects: thinking pattern, work effort, culture, religion. And I love them all, no matter what the differences are. Then I got to live in a boarding school, practically meet with many other different people. And so on, and so on.

Moving to another country, I encounter new things again. Differences again. And when it comes to such significant extent of differences, we need to ‘adjust’. I didn’t say ‘change’, because I don’t think I should change myself when facing differences.

Take this example: Taiwan and Indonesia. There are lots of differences between those two countries, let alone their people. Taiwan is a subtropical country, Indonesia is a tropical one. Taiwan’s area is ‘only’ 36,000 sq km, while Indonesia comprises of almost 2 million sq km land. Taiwanese are mainly Chinese descent, Indonesian are a mix of many tribes. Taiwanese are agnostic, Indonesian hold religion. Meat consumption in Taiwan is dominated by pork, Indonesia is dominated evenly between chicken and beef. Free sex is acceptable in Taiwan, Indonesia forbids its citizens to do so.

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I personally adjust to the environment by ‘taking the bite as large as my mouth‘. Quite literally, and plus, I don’t judge. I hate being judged by others based on a very little part of me, and thus I why I avoid doing so. There’s one time I met a Taiwanese girl and she was so mean (by her choice of English words like bitchy, hate, and her constant tantrum), and I said to myself, ‘what a bad girl’. But hey, turns out she’s very friendly, open hearted, and cares to all of her friends (even foreigners like me); it is just that she watches English movies quite often and the English vocabs she remembers are not that much to know the exact meaning and their proper use. And that’s it, it is not fair to judge someone based on one thing. I hold religion, which is Catholic, and here in my lab most of my lab mates don’t have one. At some point we will talk about that, and even when it is true that they don’t acknowledge one God like Indonesia’s religions, they value good behavior, they value courtesy, they value others. They are curious about how Moslems can’t eat pork, and when going for some dinner, they’ll nicely try to find pork-free cuisine.

I have personal experience being judged by others, many times. Because I have ‘scary look’ and cold eyes, because I have the least courtesy compared to others, because of my appearances. Well, you maybe wrong *haha. It’s just, well, not everything is like what it seems (sooo my another blog *smile).

Facing differences could be hurt, and at some points may lead us into hate and disagreement. But hey, if we expect to be respected as who we are, why don’t we do the same thing? I can insist on being who I am, being proud as who I am, and I may doesn’t care on what people think and say about me; but on the other hand, when people insist on being so, why we often react too harshly? Acceptance on several differences doesn’t mean it has to be fair, but it has to be balanced. And when we want to be let free as ourselves, then we also should do the same thing to others. We are subjective, but yes, in some moments, we have to put ourselves in others’ shoes. Look from their point of view. Because two sides of coin can be totally different, and that’s just two sides coin, what about a box? A hexagon?

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At last, difference is not a sin.

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Keep respecting, keep an open mind,

BBC’s Sherlock Series (2010): Charming Yet Loose

I love British stuff and that includes British series. I’ve watched Hustle, and a friend gave me insight on another British-made series: Sherlock. I have already told you that I am not really a Sherlock fan, I am more into Hercule Poirot. But I enjoy Sherlock as well, though I don’t read all of his cases.

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So after making an opinion for the movie, I am going to tell you what I think of the series. The three series of this season are long ones, one takes 90 minutes; starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. I recognized Cumberbatch since he played in The Other Boleyn Girl (one of my favorite films, British royal background, a story about Anne Boleyn); but in the movie, he was kind of blonde-brown in hair and not so dominant. He looks great with his dark brown-black hair in Sherlock, though.

His British accent is not as thick as Danny Blue in Hustle, and somehow I though his deep voice is similar to Professor Severus Snape in Harry Potter The Movie. I also think in the matter of appearance, he looks similar to Yukawa Manabu in Japanese series Galileo. Oh well, it is a prerequisite probably, good looking is a must to hold a role in public media. Because I don’t think Sherlock will look that awfully good based on Doyle’s novel.

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BBC’s Sherlock is a modern adaptation to Sherlock Holmes. Very contemporary, pictured in nowadays, and oh yes, very loose too. The first in the series was titled “A Study in Pink”, which reminded me of A Study in Scarlet. It is a very loose adaptation indeed, because most points of the original story were removed; for example the murder took 4 people instead of two, change of victim’s gender, and even the motive. The general concept remains the same though, killing people using poison pill, and the killer is a cabbie.

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[picture credit to BBC]

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Sherlock is pictured really charming, good looking, smart, unbelievably observant; and yes, very ignorant. In A Study in Pink, he pays a little respect to Inspector Lestrade, speaks as he wants to Anderson and Srg. Sally Donovan (both are from Scotland Yard or now popularly known as New Scotland Yard); just as how ignorant he is when pictured by Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes The Movie.

This first serial also introduces Moriarty, only mentioned the last name by the unknown cabbie. Apparently the cabbie killed four people to earn money for his kids. Not mentioned in A Study in Scarlet.

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The second one came up, The Blind Banker, adapted from The Dancing Men. Well, the original story is connection between several pictures of dancing men which the connects to American past; but the television series bring the story to China. And so so different (thus why I say the series is charming but loose). Cumberbatch’s Sherlock tries to solve the case of mysterious symbols appearing in his old friend’s workplace, led him to murder here and there. The symbols are actually numbers in Suzhou, and related to hidden message (referred to a book, the same as in the novel).

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The third one, I have no idea from what stories it is taken. It is kind of mixed story, because in the beginning of the story, there is five Greenwich pips, which Sherlock said to be a warning since people in the past use orange pips to send a warning message (this is to say general conclusion from The Five Orange Pips). Then there are subsequent cases Sherlock needs to solve in order to safe lives. There’s no exact similarity of plot to one of Doyle’s work print, but some details are deliberately taken from A Study in Scarlet, The Adventure of Bruce-Partington Plans, The Five Orange Pips, and The Final Problem.

Interestingly, Moriarty is introduced in the third series. Doyle wrote that Moriarty is a Professor, named James Moriarty. Here in the series, a more modern name is used, a Jim Moriarty. Pardon me so, but the Irish antagonist (am I right that Jim in the series speaks in Irish accent) feels so over-improvised. I mean, Irish? Acted gay? A bit childish?

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And where is Irene Adler, the only woman admired by Sherlock?

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Anyway, the series is great, I love the charming Sherlock; but indeed, the story is loose (I read the book).

Not a reader? You’ll find the series fascinating. So what are you waiting for? Go get it!

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See you again,

Sophie Kinsella: Hilarious and Light

I have many books in my collection, varying from comic books, series, magazines, and novels. I rarely count how many books I own, but they are roughly 600, give or take. I used to go to bookstore twice  a month, and since I have bold interest in reading, I end up having large collection of books.

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I keep my old comic books, and also keep buying some online (hard to find those old comic books, really); I buy new comic books too, but lately I only keep in track of Detective Conan; I buy novels (waiting for my favorite writers’ new book, or buying others that interest me); so basically my collection is getting piled on.

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Do you know about chick lit (chick literature)? Yeah, they are about women’s issues, and some people sometimes asked: why do read books like that? I thought you are the kind of serious reader. I enjoy chick lit from certain authors, because in my experience, not all chick lit can interest me. I am often intrigued by the title, but yes, don’t judge the book from its cover (literally haha~). Some are so boring that I stopped read them just after a few pages.

Here what I want to talk about is Sophie Kinsella. She is a Londoner, and well, to be honest, that’s why I bought her novel at the first time (soooo me haha~ I love British stuff!). She is being famous for her Confession of Sophaholic, but actually her novels I bought first was Can You Keep A Secret? After reading that, I loved her immediately. The story was hilarious and entertaining, telling you such usual problems we (women) often encounter in a way that we laugh at ourselves. The way she tells a story is so flowing, not jumping in and out like thriller novels.

[credit picture: London Evening Standard]

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Then I keep buying her novels. Can You Keep A Secret? is then followed by Confession of A Sophaholic, The Undomestic Goddess, Remember Me?, and Sophaholic Takes Manhattan. Not until last year that I knew her real name is Madeline Wickham, and Sophie Kinsella is a pen name.

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Her stories are not getting around one theme like shopping problem, and that’s why I like it. She wrote about a high flying lawyer who turned out to be a housemaid; a successful business woman who got amnesia; and a girl who can see ghosts! In a way the stories are so personal, you ought to see the personal life of the character, the world around her, the fortunate and unlucky moments, all. Like you are the one experiencing all the things. They are modern women, yes, so the stories run around what we often face these days. And they are not that serious, Kinsella keeps the language light and communicative, with humors here and there, so you’ll tend to laugh between pages.

Can You Keep A Secret? for example; there was a marketing girl who was sent abroad for a meeting and she screwed it. On the plane back, she sat next to a guy, and accidentally told him everything (yes, literally, everything) when there was a turbulence (she was afraid of flying haha~). Turned out, the guy was the owner of the company she worked for! Imagine the story haha~ Funny and surprising, really.

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Interested to read her novels?

Inception: Theoretically Feasible, Empirically Inconceivable

It was a really sudden plan at 8.30 PM, July 29; when I and some friends decided to watch a movie in Ximending Pedestrian Area. We had dinner at New Bangkok restaurant, and it is just a step away from the cinema street (there is a whole lane filled with cinemas in Ximending Pedestrian Area, right at WuChang Street Section 2).

We finished the dinner at 8.50 PM, then went to the cinema. The plan was to watch Inception, the new Leonardo DiCaprio’s film. It was very fortunate for us that there was one played at 9 PM (the next one played at 10.20 PM) so we rushed to buy the ticket (NTD 240, showing valid student ID card) and then went inside (row number 6, pretty much in the front, and none was before us haha~).

Inception is the creation of Christopher Nolan, famous for his Batman: The Dark Knight. I like him because of one particular thing: he is a very good writer. Not many film directors who are also writers. And rarely a good one. In his filmography, he acted as both director and writer in almost all film in the list. Call me subjective (since I am a writer), but yes, I do admire him for his talent in writing. It was said that the movie was inspired by lucid dream experience (which is unclear whether Nolan himself experienced that or not), then Nolan developed it in the genre of science-fiction (one of my favorites!).

[picture credit to: comicbookmovie.com]

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So our movie night was started by a serial whisper which finally came to my ear: what is the meaning of inception? my friends asked. I only had a rough understanding on the word, so I said: it is a kind of planting idea in our mind, as I took the contextual meaning, not the literal one. Actually the word means a process of beginning, or origin (see here). The beginning of what?

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Again, I will not give a synopsis, or summary, or spoiler thing; I merely want to say what I think about this movie.

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The story moved around Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a “mind investigator” or an extractor as Nolan calls him. He goes deep into someone’s dream (mind) to obtain some information inaccessible using conventional methods. Only in this special case, he was asked to plant a memory. The scheme was: going deep into target’s dream so the memory will last as it’s needed; it means creating layers of “carefully arranged dreams” so the memory will not fade away. Yes, it is theoretically right, probably even doable, that to invest something we have to go down deeper so the result is guaranteed; or stable.

This job couldn’t be performed by just one people. Cobb recruited several people: a chemist (Yusuf, to create a powerful sedative strong enough to keep the whole team unconscious while the inception is performed), a forger (I like this one, at first I thought that the term forger only used in painting world haha~; someone who can change his/her appearance in the dream, here is Eames), and an architecture, Ariadne (to create the dream world as close as possible to reality). Cobb also had a right-hand man, Arthur (who looked very familiar to me that during the whole movie I tried hard to remember in what film he played before).

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I do like science-fiction movie, I mean, we can explain it by some scientific reasons (the world in which I’m living). Inception plot was great, though the idea (I honestly think) was not original. Okay, we had The Matrix, we also had Avatar. The first one told us about the “mind world”, the second one opened our eyes to the “sharing ideas”. Inception was the combination of both. How we can work our mind, and how we can share some ideas too (here: the dreams). Nolan came up with more interesting details and admirable twists; how the audiences were baffled with the beginning, slowly captured the tempo; and even perhaps emotionally involved with Dom’s tragic personal life. Awesome. I found myself “buried” and caught in the twisting plots here and there in the movie.

There were some points left to blank in scientific explanation (which for some people might be unnecessary to be explained; but to me, I need answer haha~) like: what sedative Yusuf used to bring the teams in deep sleep (in my knowledge it could be flunitrazepam), how the “sharing machine” works (I mean, sharing minds is not as simple as putting LAN cable right?), how the personal obsession really affect the dream world, and so on. I want to know the practical way of it, how the process is clearly scientifically explained, whether it is feasible or not (I guess no one has figured that, yet). Not really a negative point from me, but I feel curious.

And the ending, just as many other scientific films; the end depends on the audience imagination. Will the totem stop spinning? No one knows.

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You can read the story here.

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I think you should watch the movie.

Hustle vs Leverage: When Con Men Act in Different Countries

Well, thanks to Dave and Yared for successfully getting me addicted to Hustle The Series. I’ve watched the early series anyway somewhere in 2004, but  I couldn’t get the chance to continue, and then I stopped. Later they got me to watch again (knowing my subjective fondness toward British stuff). And yes, I love Danny Blue!

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As you may (or may not) know, Hustle pictures a team of con artists doing their scam. They are Michael Stone a.k.a. Mickey Bricks, Albert Stroller, Ashley Morgan a.k.a. Three Socks, Stacie Monroe, and Danny Blue. The team find a mark, who is selectively selected according to the wealth and the “attitude” (what they refer as: you can’t con an honest man), people who are greedy and do some bad things. After finding a mark, a scam plan is carefully arranged, including every minor details (as explained that Mickey likes details and avoids going to jail). Albert acts as the roper, the one who gets close to the mark; Ashley is the fixer, prepare everything needed in operational act; Stacie as the lure, tempting or convincing the mark; while Mickey and Danny both simultaneously act as the planner and inside man.

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Just watch it. It is very well-filmed, full of surprising scam plans, and see how smart the way they con the mark. LOVE IT. It is now reaching season 6 (6 episodes in each season).

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And then when I did some random browsing about Hustle, I came up to a site telling about American Hustle. It is called Leverage. Okay. Find the description, and I was curious. Visit Dave‘s FTP (good guess, he has it!), and watched (thanks Dave *smile). It is truly an American Hustle. I don’t know the story how Leverage is produced, but the basic concept of Hustle is adapted to the series. Several differences though.

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The team in Leverage is lead by Nathan Ford a.k.a. Nate, a former insurance investigator; Sophie Devereaux, basically the lure; Alec Hardison, computer man; Eliot Spencer, the protector, in other words he takes part in the fighting and retrieval scene; and Parker, young girl with attitude problem, and is a thief. FYI, I like Parker the most. She’s just so annoying like me *tongue.

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The story is basically the same, but Leverage is ‘lighter’, not as serious and detailed as Hustle; Leverage is like Robin Hood who help people by scamming their enemies (not enemies specifically, but put them as ‘bad people’) while Mickey et.al. concers about their money by doing a trick to (the same) bad people.

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Here is the thing. Mickey and the gang usually plan the scam in details, and the series tell us so. I mean, in every episode, it will be revealed how they work this and that, prepare this and that. In Leverage, everything moves in faster speed, often there is no explanation how they do something, and how easy Hardison hacks into here and there. The basic personality of the team itself is different. Hustle team consists of real con artists, while Leverage team is a mix of ‘bright head’ (Nate), computer geek, thief, martial art expert, and artist. Hustle works on their own, Leverage accepts work offer.

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I like them both. Still vote for Hustle, though. The choice is yours.

Happy watching,

Kim Yeo Hee: Apple and Music

In the middle of everyone in this lab who’s actually ‘working’ on something (their thesis), I am just jotting something ‘unimportant’ down. Hahahaha. I get confused with my experimental data and I am bored, and I am currently listening to Apple Girl a.k.a. Kim Yeo Hee.

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She posted her first video of Beyonce’s Irreplaceable cover in YouTube at March 15, and people immediately love her. The video became very popular among netizens, and people were wondering who she is. She set up her iPhones to play the instrument of Irreplaceable and then she began to sing. It is interesting to see how easy she worked on the applications (it seems she really gets used to the applications). And she can sing! Really, her voice is crisp and cute, and she sang awesomely (plus she’s beautiful!).

Listen.

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Nice, eh? I like the way she sang, in some part she simply just ‘said’ the words, and didn’t make it flow by notes. It was cool! Like it like it!

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On March 23, she made netizens crazy about her again by covering Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, using her iPhones (again!). I like it! (you know I like Lady Gaga too *smile). Check this out.

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Woaaa. She’s really into music; she knows how to play the applications and gets right into the rhythm. That’s why she’s so popular. There have been many rumors that record companies all over the world are interested in signing her. Later she signed a record contract with Dream High Entertainment.

Here is her first single, My Music.

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I love it at the first time! Her voice stands out and clear, and the melody is somehow cheering and mellow at the same time. Actually for the last couple days I have been trying to remember the lyrics so I can sing the song (Korean =,=). Nan nolae halkkeoya! (I like the sound of the ‘keoya’ part).

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And this one.

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Okay, so let’s go back to report again, featuring Kim Yeo Hee *tongue.

Happy listening,